Ch. 8 Lunch with Friends
AARON WATSON'S POV:
This was either going to be the best or the worst decision of my life; confessing to Max and Chloe that I was a human stopwatch. I knew how I was going to do it: I was going to tell them the story instead of bluntly saying it. Context would be crucial here if I did not want to sound like a total lunatic.
After taking a deep shaky breath, I slowly walked back to my table, trying to gather the right words to make them believe that I was not lying. Chloe and Max appeared to be messing around at the booth as I approached it. I almost did not want to interrupt them. It was obvious that they meant a lot to each other and sometimes I felt like I was intruding. If I told them that, they would shoot me down and tell me I was being stupid. Besides, something told me that if Chloe had a problem with me sticking around she would not hesitate to tell me. She certainly had no issues speaking her mind, and often without any filters or tact. I shook these self-conscious thoughts out of my mind as I sat down next to Max.
Once I had returned to the table, a wave of unease passed over me, my resolve weakening by the second. So many doubts and worries rushed through my mind, making it harder to bring this conversation up. How would Max and Chloe react to this? There was really only one way to find out for definite…
"Something on your mind?" Max asked curiously, her head tilted slightly to the side and her soft blue eyes staring at me intensely. This question thankfully gave me the prompt I needed to get started.
"I need to confess something," I replied, swallowing my apprehensions. This could go completely wrong, but I had to try. My powers were a secret I could no longer bare alone, both for myself and for Max and Chloe. It was a gamble I had to take.
"Oh relax," Chloe said with an impish smirk I had begun to expect from her when she was about to say something to try and embarrass me, "I already know that you're desperately in love with me."
Max rolled her eyes at Chloe's well practiced and relentless mockery, one she probably had been personally subjected to more times than she could count. Then she turned to me and said, "Don't be shy, you can trust us."
I grabbed a napkin and began to fold it. And as I folded, I told my story. "I went to my mother, Darlene Watson's funeral with my dad, Nathan, and my sister, Abby. Dad had been drinking and he hit me that morning, and Abby said that I was somehow responsible for her death, she drowned while on a fishing trip. I sat between dad and Abby, two people who seemed to hate me more than anything. I concentrated really hard to try and drown out the sound of the mourning relatives and friends of my mom. When I opened my eyes, everyone was still. It was uncomfortably quiet. So I got up and left the funeral home. Outside, the birds in the sky stood still and the water that shot out of sprinklers stood still in the air." I leaned in closer to them, "Time had stopped."
The napkin I was folding finally became a crane. Around that time, Joyce came over with two plates of food.
"Aaron," she said in her cheery tone, "your hamburger will be ready shortly."
"Thank you Joyce," I mumbled before turning back to Max and Chloe, my heart pounding in my chest as I waited for their reply to my strange confession. My stomach was churning up now from nerves as I shuffled awkwardly in my seat, hoping that this unbearable silence would eventually pass.
I had half-expected them to brush me off, to tell me that I was high or crazy. I wouldn't blame them to be honest, even I had a hard time coming to terms with this. Instead, they exchanged tentative glances. Max bit her lip, her brow furrowing in confliction while Chloe began tapping her fingers on the table we are sat at. A heavy silence hung over our heads, the suddenly tense atmosphere making me fidget awkwardly.
After a few moments, Max sighed and began pushing her food around with a fork distractedly, "Well, that wouldn't be all that unbelievable."
The fact that Max was even entertaining the idea, let alone that she seemed so ready to accept it, was mind-blowing to say the least.
"Wait, you...believe me? Just like that?" I ask incredulously. While I was happy and relieved that she believed me, I still could not work out why.
Max glanced up from her food, her intense blue eyes piercing mine, "Because maybe you aren't the only one."
"Are you saying...?" I stammered, the implication of her words slowly sinking in.
Chloe leaned back in her chair, placing her hands behind her head, "Now I am feeling left out. How do I always manage to hang around with the weird ones?"
"I could ask the same thing," Max lightly teased.
"I can prove it if you need me to," I said feeling both surprised and glad that they believed me, but also curious at Max's subtle inference that she also possessed time travel powers. It was hard enough to believe that one person had that power, to find out that there was at least one other person was incredible. I had to wonder how many other people had this power.
"You don't need to," Chloe smiled, a mischievous glint entering her eyes as she thought over my offer "but it would be fun."
I held out my hands, "Grab on."
Max and Chloe grabbed my hands, Max's hold being much lighter and considerate than Chloe's who was almost crushing my hand with her vice-like grip, I concentrated, feeling the now familiar surge of power, and then time stood still.
"Here we are," I said "in the place where time doesn't exist."
Max and Chloe looked around their now frozen surroundings. The soft music from the jukebox no longer played and a trucker sat at the counter, who must have entered the diner while I was in the bathroom, was halfway through bringing a fork full of food to his mouth. Joyce was frozen in place just behind the counter, a tray full of dirty plates, mugs and cutlery in her hand.
"I don't feel any different," Chloe said.
"You shouldn't," I said, "when you grabbed onto me, you became part of me. When I stopped time, you followed me to this place where time stands still, but everyone else is paused."
"You know," the blue haired punk smirked before eagerly adding, "I am almost tempted to check out the bathroom to see if I can peak in on anyone."
Max's face scrunched up in mild disapproval, "Ew, Chloe. No. Just… no."
"What?" She countered defensively, "This might be my only chance to do it. I'm not gonna do it when people know I'm there, am I?"
Max shook her head despairingly at her old friend, "It's a good thing that you aren't the one with powers, huh?"
Chloe crossed her arms, "If I had powers I would use them awesomely, not like you who won't let me play around."
"I've let you 'play around' more than enough," Max refuted her claim firmly, "and it never ended well and before you ask me for an example, the Junkyard gun incident is the one that springs to mind."
Chloe dismissively waved away her proof, "Live a little, Max. That's why I am here; to make sure you have fun."
"You have an interesting idea of what fun is," Max sighed as she ran her fingers tiredly through her hair.
This caused Chloe's strawberry blonde eyebrow to rise suggestively with an enticing grin, "Oh, I haven't even begun to show you what I think is fun, Caulfield."
Chloe looked to her right and saw something that made her grin evilly. "Aaron," she said motioning out of the closest window overlooking the almost bare street, "look over there." I followed the motion and saw a familiar person. A girl with short blonde hair, condescending brown eyes and a slight sneer of disapproval on her lips was walking past the diner, it was the 'Queen bitch of Blackwell' Victoria Chase.
"Chloe," Max said cautioned in a mildly stern tone, at least as stern as she could make her soft-spoken voice, "what are you planning?"
"I'm going to have some fun with her while I can," she chuckled standing up and beginning to leave, "You do remember what fun is, right?"
"I should probably mention that I can't maintain this paused moment for over thirty minutes, otherwise my nose starts bleeding," I added, already beginning to feel the telltale signs of the inevitable strain my powers caused. It always started with a mild throbbing, which soon escalated into a mind crushing pain among other things.
She turned back and smiled, "I only need five."
She strode out of the Two Whales Diner and stood in front of Victoria, rubbing her hands eagerly together in anticipation before flashing us an excited smirk, "Super-Max, get out your camera."
"I'm not even going to ask," Max muttered as she reluctantly conceded, reaching inside the well-worn camera bag slung over her shoulder and produced her camera.
"I wouldn't complain too much," I noted hesitantly as I watched Chloe eyeing up Victoria thoughtfully, "at least she's directing her pranks at someone other than us for a change."
"Exactly," Chloe agreed as she began circling Victoria, pondering over what to do to her, "Be happy that you get a break for once. It won't happen often."
"Yeah, I guess," Max exhaled deeply as she prepared her camera to capture whatever Chloe had in mind. She just hoped that Chloe would keep it relatively tame.
After some deliberation, Chloe put both of Victoria's hands on her ass and, with her own hand, groped Victoria's breast. After that she kissed her on the lips. Max took a picture and it popped out of the camera, which Chloe almost immediately snatched out of her hand, looking over it with an ever growing smile.
"Not bad, Super-Max. Not bad," she handed the photo back to Max.
"You're not going to blackmail her are you?" I asked.
"No," Chloe licked her lips, "that was for fun." That infamous mischievous grin of hers suddenly returned, accompanied with a worrying glint in her blue eyes, "If I wanted to blackmail her, I'd take a picture of her having sex with an unpopular kid in Blackwell."
We were all silent, and then Max and I simultaneously said, "Don't even think about it."
"You guys are such downers," Chloe pouted at our reluctance to comply with her morally obscure plans.
We went back to the dinner and I un-paused time. Max was right, they were really great hamburgers. After we filled our stomachs, we began to travel to the last part of the tour, the American Rust Junkyard. For obvious reasons, Max and I decided to walk there, but not before Chloe grabbed something from the back of a truck.
"My guitar," Max said surprised "when did you get it?"
"You left the guitar at my house the last time you came over," Chloe explained, "I grabbed it this morning and put it in the back so I wouldn't forget it."
"And we were driving around all day with it sitting loosely in the bed of your truck," Max said with mild panic, "need I remind you that it's your truck?!"
"It was in the case," Chloe said smugly.
"You could've scratched my stickers," Max grumbled as she carefully took the guitar from Chloe, removing it from the case and began checking it over, her whole body tensing up as she diligently checked for any marks. Her fingertips brushed lightly over the main body of the guitar as she squinted. After a few moments, the tension in her shoulders slowly began to leave as she confirmed her guitar's safety and replaced it back in the case with great care.
"Ah, but I didn't," she stated.
"Lucky for you," Max sighed in relief.
"Well," Chloe clapped her hands together "I have to go to my house to pick up some things. You two go to the junkyard and don't fuck each other while I'm gone."
Max and I both blushed as Chloe laughed her way to the driver's seat of her truck and sped off.
"So," I said "how far is it to the junkyard?"
"A few miles," she replied.
"I'll carry the guitar if you want me to," I offered. She handed it to me carefully and we started our journey.
That took longer than I wanted it to.